Breweries "Visited"

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Day 410: Real Ale, Brewery Tours and God's Country, Y'all

The final installment of Texas Beer Week takes us to Real Ale Brewing in Blanco, Texas. I went to Texas Hill Country! It is an amazing thing to see so much open space--it looks like it just goes on forever. There were cowboys. Unironic boot wearing, hat wearing cowboys. I even saw a car with cattle horns on the front end! Amazing. We hit the road from Austin and headed west to Blanco to experience Real Ale Brewing for ourselves. Normally I'm the person who says if you've seen one brewery, you don't need to see them all. Boy was I mistaken. The tour at Real Ale was awesome. It was not one of those OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) approved tours. It was a true behind-scenes, stand in puddles, don't poke your eye out on that nozzle, avoid getting a concussion tour. I'm pretty sure that if I lingered too long, someone would have given me a keg to fill or hops to haul around. The guys at Real Ale are cranking out some great beer. I noticed their Firemans 4 blonde ale all over Austin. Thanks to some bizarre Texas laws, breweries cannot sell directly to consumers. Instead some give away samples. There was a point during our visit to Real Ale when I wondered how long we could hang out before we got cut off. What did I sample? Two beers. Repeatedly. The first was a Belgian-style tripel, Devil's Backbone. It was a nice golden color with great flavor. Good candy sugar, a little hoppy. Very interesting. The booze was apparent but surprisingly easy to drink. My other taste went to the barleywine. Another bruiser of a beer (11% ABV) but so tasty and warming. Lots of toffee and malt with enough hop to keep it from being too rich. Beer statsStyle: BarleywineABV: 11%IBUs: 77Rating: GoodStyle: TripelABV: 8.1%IBUs: 36Rating: GoodPreviously reviewed from Real Ale BrewingFirst review!

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of my beer. Instead here are some shots from the tour...

Yes, Real Ale is doing barrel aging!

And like I said when I started Texas Beer Week...Texas forever, y'all.